Beet Red Velvet Cake

• Beets are a go-to item for those looking for a potent but natural red food coloring. Incorporating pureed beets into your cake batter lends not only the deep red color you're after, but moisture and tenderness as well. You can puree drained canned beets or roast fresh beets yourself, but allow them to cool before moving forward. Most recipes call for 1 1/2 to 2 cups of pureed beets, which are folded into the wet ingredients before combining with the dry.

Red Wine Velvet Cake

• Adding a splash of wine to anything is rarely a bad thing, but adding several cupfuls to a cake batter may sound a little crazy. The fact that the recipe comes from Stella Parks, a chef and food writer trained at the Culinary Institute of America, gives the idea more legitimacy. Parks recommends a zinfandel, which provides a deep red color and moisture to the cake. The addition of plenty of vanilla counteracts the savory notes contributed by wine.

Less is More

• There are several downsides to using regular liquid food coloring in large quantities, one being that it can lead to a bitter aftertaste. You may be able to find no-taste red food coloring, or you can opt for a more potent form of food coloring that gives you a deep red using far less dye. Try using gel or paste food coloring mixed with enough water to equal the amount of liquid food coloring called for by your recipe. Both are highly pigmented, so you may need no more than a teaspoon.

The Rumored Original

• One theory as to the origin of red velvet cake is that the first recipe did not contain any red food coloring at all. Rather, the combination of dark brown sugar and cocoa powder gave the cake batter a tinge of red -- not the fluorescent red you see today. The taste of the finished cake does not rely on what color it is, so you may forgo the food coloring altogether and tell your guests that your recipe is more authentic that way. Just be sure to replace the amount of food coloring called for with the same amount of liquid used by the recipe -- a few more teaspoons of buttermilk, for example.